life got busy about six years ago actually, and luckily it hasn't really stopped. But, I spent the week following Easter in Vienna and hadn't yet found the time to blog about it.
The best thing about going to Vienna was catching up with a few people met in Perth. Shall I name them all? Tom Nuspl, Pat Prokesch, Rene Welter, Kat Steininger, Mo Leder, Anna Holzmann, Roisin Ni Neill, and Dan Hunt. Meeting a few of their friends was also nice. As was randomly bumping into two Austrian girls who have applied to stay at St. George's next semester!
Apart from that, I thought Vienna is a beautiful city. It seems so liveable, generally pleasant; it seems there's always something new to discover, with many vast green gardens and such varied architecture. I'm told the crime is also very low. They have horse carriages around the centre, so the poop is the only down side ;)
Difficult not to be jealous of what the council has done with the Museums Quarter, where there is a large courtyard with so many of these plastic couches, call them what you want, but it's just too tempting to come here and hang out with a drink, catch some cultural show they put on or observe some particularly bizarre and arty looking people... aaah the hard life.
Being in company of such awesome people also helps:
We had some particularly interesting meals while in Vienna, let's just get to the main topic (food). A very cute concept was where we had lunch the first day, a French cafe with a big common table where people sat around. Another lunch at the Palmenhaus, yes, what used to be a "Palm House", this would be it...
A very very typical Austrian restaurant in a country side village called Krems...
And an unforgettable Austrian Sunday brunch, which literally filled me for two days.
The day we made a trip to the countryside we also visited Dürnstein, another small town near the hills, where we hiked on top of one to visit some castle ruins. The view was pretty spactacular :)
I also really enjoyed visiting the Summer Palace (Schönbrunn) with its huge and perfectly looked-after gardens, and a sweet rewards awaiting you on top of the hill behind the Gloriette.
Still in the Schönbrunn is the world's oldest zoo, yes because the Emperors clearly needed their private zoo. So we went to the zoo :)
Another big highlight was going to the Austrian state Opera! Thanks to Tom, we watched Nabucco, by Verdi; I found the chorus' performance of Va, Pensiero quite moving.
The theatre was gorgeous of course, and we got to dress up and go to a very class bar afterwards, on top of a high building facing the city's cathedral Stephansdom.
Though perhaps not the most informative blog entry, this is all about Vienna. Tomorrow I am going to Berlin with Mary for 4 days, so will be hearing more German :) We don't really have any plans so it should be fun to improvise, of course trying to make the most of every day we're there!
Best wishes to everyone reading :)
Elena
Obviously you're enjoying all you're doing - I'm very happy about that ^^
ReplyDeleteHow many kilos did you put on? :p